International Darts League

Tournament History

The International Darts League was first staged in 2003 when Raymond van Barneveld won the first of his 3 titles (2004 and 2006 were the other years). ervyn King won in 2005 and Gary Anderson completed a WDT/IDL double in 2007. riginally a BDO/WDF tournament it formed one leg of the BDO Grand Slam.

In 2006 5 PDC players were invited in for the first time and by 2007 there were 20 PDC players taking part. By 2008 the tournament was no more, biting the dust along with the World Darts Trophy as Barry Hearn stopped any PDC players taking part and devising the Grand Slam of Darts as a direct rival. The BDO went to court claiming a contract until 2010 was in place for the event to run and be screened by SBS6. However their case and subsequent appeal were unsuccessful and the tournament appears to be no more.

Tempus sponsored the event from 2003 to 2005 and Topic took over from 2006. It was screened on SBS6.

The format changed a little over the years including round robin groups.

The 2007 tournament witnessed something extroadinary when two 9-dart finishes were thrown on consecutive days. Phil Taylor (who else?) was followed by Tony O'Shea who hit the perfect game against Adrian Lewis. To date, it is the only major tv tournament to have seen two 9-dart finishes.